A poor day for Pakistan as a pitch with a bit of movement was too much for the batsmen. Questions will be asked of Asad Shafiq in particular who has been struggling of late and also whether Sarfraz Ahmed was the best choice as reserve wicketkeeper. Sri Lanka's seam bowlers kept the ball in the right areas and after a decent start to their innings, they will be confident of a healthy lead particularly if the pitch flattens out.

By PakPassion Staff (8th January, 2014)

Toss: Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to field.

Teams:

Pakistan: 1. Khurram Manzoor, 2. Ahmed Shehzad, 3. Mohammad Hafeez, 4. Younis Khan, 5. Misbah-ul-Haq (c), 6. Asad Shafiq, 7. Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), 8. Bilawal Bhatti, 9. Rahat Ali, 10. Saeed Ajmal, 11. Junaid Khan


Sri Lanka: 1. Dimuth Karunaratne, 2. Kaushal Silva, 3. Kumar Sangakkara, 4. Mahela Jayawardene, 5. Dinesh Chandimal, 6. Angelo Mathews, 7. Prasanna Jayawardene, 8. Rangana Herath, 9. Shaminda Eranga 10. Suranga Lakmal, 11. Nuwan Pradeep

Misbah had emphasised in his pre-match press conference that Dubai has historically been a results pitch but even he couldn’t have expected the strong greenish tinge to the wicket he inspected this morning. The wet weather in Dubai over the last week has clearly had an impact on the preparation of the strip and the Sri Lankan captain Angelo Mathews had no qualms about electing to field after winning the toss.

Both teams made one change, for Pakistan the injured Adnan Akmal was replaced by Sarfraz Ahmed and for Sri Lanka Senanayake made way for Nuwan Pradeep.

The ball nipped around early on and Nuwan Pradeep, who was able to extract some movement at good pace, trapped Ahmed Shehzad lbw with a ball that moved in for three in the tenth over. Shehzad hadn’t been able to get his feet moving in the 27 balls that he’d faced and the
umpire had no hesitation in giving the decision. A few overs later, Sri Lanka had an lbw review against Khurram Manzoor in the 13th over of the day, but the ball was adjudged to be missing the stumps.

Pakistan had clearly come out with the gameplan of leaving as many deliveries as possible after being skittled a couple of times for sub-100 scores batting first in Dubai and Mohammad Hafeez and Khurram Manzoor ensured Pakistan did not lose another wicket before lunch, albeit with a scoring rate at below two runs per over.

At lunch, Pakistan were 57/1, with Khurram Manzoor on 24 and Mohammad Hafeez 13.

Manzoor began aggressively after lunch, taking three boundaries off Pradeep before Hafeez followed it up with two of his own off Herath. Pradeep got back into the groove in the next over though, bowling Hafeez with an inswinger as the batsman left too big a gap between bat and pad. Manzoor reached an important half century and hit his first six in Test cricket shortly after, lofting Herath over the long on boundary. Eranga took the big wicket of Younis Khan in the next over, as a loose drive resulted in an edge through to the wicketkeeper to leave Pakistan on 107/3.

Lots rested on Misbah-Ul-Haq once again but there was a rare failure for the Pakistan captain as Eranga found the edge once again. Khurram Manzoor continued to impress, moving on to 73 before Lakmal took his first wicket of the game, inducing yet another outside edge through to the keeper. Asad Shafiq's worrying run of form continued as an uppish drive was well taken by a diving Silva in the covers. It meant that by tea, Pakistan had collapsed to 128/6, fully vindicating Angelo Mathews' decision to field first.

No major change in the final session as Sarfraz Ahmed, in for the injured Adnan Akmal, fell for 7 due to another edge through to the keeper. Bilawal Bhatti went on the counter attack to try to salvage a decent score for his side, but Ajmal and Rahat Ali both fell in the same over to Herath to leave Pakistan nine down. Bhatti had scored 24 useful runs before Herath dismissed Junaid Khan LBW to end the Pakistani innings on a disappointing 165.

Sri Lanka began well, with Karunaratne in particular finding the boundary regularly. Some excellent bowling from Junaid Khan ended with him being out LBW but Sangakarra and Silva steadied the ship and when bad light ended play early, the visitors had reached 57/1.

Day One: Fall Of Wickets

Morning Session
1-28 Ahmed Shehzad, 9.3 overs

Afternoon Session
2-78 Mohammad Hafeez, 27.5 overs
3-107 Younis Khan, 38.1 overs
4-109 Misbah-ul-Haq, 40.1 overs
5-118 Khurram Manzoor, 46.5 overs
6-127 Asad Shafiq, 50.2 ov,

Evening Session
7-129 (Sarfraz Ahmed, 53.4 ov),
8-151 (Saeed Ajmal, 57.2 ov),
9-151 (Rahat Ali, 57.6 ov),
10-165 (Junaid Khan, 63.5 ov)

1-40 (Karunaratne, 10.6 ov)

A poor day for Pakistan as a pitch with a bit of movement was too much for the batsmen. Questions will be asked of Asad Shafiq in particular who has been struggling of late and also whether Sarfraz Ahmed was the best choice as reserve wicketkeeper. Sri Lanka's seam bowlers kept the ball in the right areas and after a decent start to their innings, they will be confident of a healthy lead particularly if the pitch flattens out.

Pakistan vs Sri Lanka in Dubai, 2nd Test, Day 2, 6AM GMT.

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